News

The minister of communication and media for the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lambert Mende Omalanga, indicated on Sunday that the problem of transferring the ex-rebel chief of the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP) Laurent Nkunda will be solved in 2010.

A delegation of the Communist Party of China (CPC) began on Friday a tour of six African states, following up visits earlier this month by two government ministers. Led by Wang Jiarui, head of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, the group will visit the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, Senegal, Benin, the Central African Republic, and Djibouti over 12 days.

Pope Benedict decried what he called "indifference, amounting practically to resignation of public opinion worldwide" of conflicts such as those in Darfur, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

African leaders began to arrive in Luanda on Sunday to attend the opening ceremony of the final-stage matches of the soccer African Cup of Nations, the most popular sports extravaganza on the continent.

The foreign minister for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) has stopped the granting of a Kinshasa visa to the European commissioner for development, the Belgian Karel De Gucht, in reaction to his recent comments considered by Kinshasa as malicious.

Officials said the ministers believe that progress is being made toward easing the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and that reconciliation efforts between the government and various rebel groups were on the right track.

Rebel access to mines and minerals in the DRC has fueled decades of war and destabilization in the area, says the Enough Project, and securing the mines will cut off funds to rebel groups and bring a quick end to the conflict. The Enough Project is an international group working to end genocide and crimes against humanity.

The Operation's principal objectives are to protect civilian populations, clear strategic areas of negative forces, hold territory liberated from FDLR control, and assist in restoring State authority in these zones. The Special Representative also informed the Council that Operation Amani Leo would include preventive interventions aimed at stopping the FDLR from regrouping and attacking civilian populations and re-occupying major mining areas.

The "Play for Life" campaign focuses on Africa, a continent that hosts exceptional biodiversity including two of the five most important wilderness areas on earth, the Congo Basin, and Miombo-Mopane Woodlands and Savannas of Southern Africa.

Almost 3,000 government employees have been sacked - or forcibly retired - in the Democratic Republic of Congo. President Joseph Kabila fired more than 100 people accused of corruption from the ministry of finance and other government departments.